viernes, 18 de mayo de 2012

The Indigenous or Aboriginal People of Australia

The largest island the world, Australia was inhabited by the humans almost 45,000 years ago. That is why; the indigenous tribes of Australia truly claim that they are the genuine survivors of Australia. They truly owe Australia along with their magnificent culture and have competed with natural disasters and calamities over thousands of years.

They were bruised, they were thrashed and they were banged by the invaders and the colonizers. The only motive behind that was to uphold the racial discrimination. This situation became worse after the arrival of the white people in Australia and they totally misjudged the aboriginal cultural values of the indigenous people of Australia.

The Australian Aboriginals. Image: Rusty Stewart

Out of the total population of the indigenous or aboriginal people of Australia, most of them live in the eastern parts of the continent. 63% of Indigenous people live in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria while Western Australia and the Northern Territory contribute only 28% of the Indigenous population. In Australia they are mostly referred as the aboriginal Australians and the word Indigenous for them is mostly disliked. There were more than 250 languages spoken by Indigenous Australians before the arrival of Europeans. But most of them are being extinct now and presently only 12-15 languages are being used by the aboriginal or indigenous people of Australia. The aboriginal or indigenous people of Australia are divided in many regional groups. Some of the indigenous or aboriginal people groups of Australia include Koori, Murri, Tiwi , Palawah, Anangu, Nunga and Wangai etc.